Pride The Silent Killer

Lord, thank you that you've kept us and that you are working in our lives. Lord, that we would trust and believe that you would finish the work you've begun in us and that you would cause us to continue to hear your voice and to follow you in Jesus' name. Pam, when you were sharing the Lord Ezekiel 16, I was thinking about Sodom and Gomorrah. Many of us know that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, the homosexuality and the perversion and all that, and how God destroyed those cities. But it says in Ezekiel 16, I believe it talks about how that began. How did the homosexuality and the perversion and pornography and all those things that led to this perversion and bestiality and all these other sins that have come in and become very gross, how did it happen? And it says that the sin of Sodom was that they had become proud, that they had an abundance of food, that they were idle. They had a lot of free time. And this is the sin of Sodom. And so because they were proud, they had lots to eat and they had a lot of free time. And they got themselves into trouble. And this is how we can get ourselves into trouble. When we get away from being obedient to following after the Lord, and staying busy with the tasks that God gives us and to be thankful, then it can creep up on us that in our boredom, and the fact that we have the bank account, there's enough there to buy whatever kind of food that we would really like to eat. It doesn't talk about buying all the luxury items. It's talking about an abundance of food and idleness. And it creeps up ever so slowly. You can't even see it coming. It's like the carbon monoxide detectors. We have the CO detectors. This one day we were up in Bradner and all of a sudden we were going to bed at night and I had a bit of a headache. And all of a sudden these detectors start going. We're trying to figure out what's going on. And so I thought, well, I would call and ask them, the fire department, well, they said, just don't get out, you don't get out. And they came screaming down the road with their fire engines and they were in suits and everything. There were people running all over the place with sniffers. There was a leak, a gas leak in the attic and it was coming through the vents. And it was just small, but it was enough to give us a headache. And this is how pride creeps in. It just comes in a small form. But it's the silent killer and it can take you down. And we don't realize it. The scripture speaks in Psalms 73. The psalm writer writes that the Lord deals with him just like the Lord deals with us as brothers. And he chastens us, he disciplines us because he loves us. But the worldly people, they don't seem to get disciplined. Things seem to get better for them. They seem to prosper. They get their raises. They seem to be able to buy all those things. And it says that pride serves as their necklace. And they're not played like other men. And the psalm writer says that he became envious of the proud and his foot had nearly slipped. Because when he saw them and he looked at his own life, he thought how come they're getting ahead and I'm not getting anywhere. Until he saw their end. That the Lord had set them in slippery places that in a moment they would disappear from the face of the earth. And then he repented and he went into the house of God and he got light on himself. That the Lord had set them in slippery places that they should fall and not rise. But the righteous man, he may fall, but he's able to rise. Even if he falls seven times, he rises again because the Lord is able to keep us. And to sustain us and perfect us and establish us and cause us to be conformed into his likeness. Through discipline and through chastisement. Brothers and sisters, don't despise the discipline of the Lord. Discipline involves humbling. If we don't humble ourselves, then we're going to get humbled. I think of the children and they respond in a proud way. And they need discipline. To the point that they humble themselves. And that's the only amount that God needs to give us. To the point where we humble ourselves. When he gets our attention and when softness starts to come. Then we can keep going. We can get up, repent and keep going with the Lord. But let us not become proud as the heathen. Let us not be a bunch of proud brothers. Judging one another, provoking one another, envying one another. Let's love one another, encourage one another. Come alongside one another. There's a scripture that says, fall on the rock and be broken. For the rock will fall on you and grind you to powder. It's better to fall on the rock and be broken than for a rock to fall on you and grind you to powder. We used to build retaining walls with the excavator. Huge, four or five foot rocks weighing maybe two or three tons. We could barely lift them with the big excavator. We'd be setting those and guys would be walking around and leveling stuff and so on. And I'd say, get away from there. Because that thumb, it could slip from the thumb and it could come out of that bucket where we set it. And if that thing rolls, it'll crush you. And this is a picture of Christ. You say, well, a picture of Christ crushing you? It says, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. It is a stone of stumbling to some and a rock of offense. Because they reject the word when the word comes to them. They are proud and they don't receive the word. And if we don't receive the word of correction when it comes to us through the scriptures, through the exhortation of brothers one toward another, through preaching, through however the Holy Spirit speaks to us, if we stiffen our neck, then be certain a discipline is coming or a stumble is coming. Because God is opposed to the proud. But he gives grace to the humble. So what it means is if we humble ourselves and we fall on the rock, which is Christ, and we're broken, we let him, we let his dealings break our pride and bring softness to our hearts and tears to our eyes. That's what the Lord is looking for. On which one will he look? On him who is proud and who's hard-hearted and who makes smart comments and who has a haughty look? The haughty look is one of the things the Lord hates. A haughty, proud look. When you get a proud look from someone when you're trying to talk to them, it's one of the things the Lord hates. We say, oh, the Lord hates homosexuality. Yes, he does. But he also hates a proud look because the proud look will lead to perversion. It will lead to the worst things. That was what happened to Sodom. It was that they'd become proud. They had need of nothing. They had an abundance of food and they had a lot of time. When we have a lot of time on our hands and we're not using the time or redeeming the time for the Lord, then we get ourselves into trouble. When you've got extra time, me time, what do you do? You get on the phone, you start surfing. Next thing you know, you start on a way and you think you're going this way and all of a sudden you end up over here. We're in a ditch. How did you get there? You were not wise with your time. You didn't redeem the time. You could have used that time, as Brother Dan shared, to serve or you could have used it to seek the Lord or you could have spent it in some prayer. You could have used it to teach your kids something or you could have used it in a better way when you're not working and doing all those things that we need to do. To renew our minds. You know, we go many places, but our mind has to be ever on the Lord. If our mind is just on ourselves and me and mine, we're going to find ourselves in a place where there's a rock over us and it's just a matter of time. If we keep fooling around, that the rock will fall on us and grind us to powder. Those proud, it says, they came to an end suddenly and he sought for them and they were no more. This last week I got a phone call, well I made a phone call and I found out that the fellow who did the concrete work here on our property, he was a very exceedingly proud man and I tried to talk to him about some of the things where he had made deficiencies in. He got very angry to the point where he would take hammers and he would take a brand new truck that was a year old and he would take hammer and he would smash it into the side of his truck and beat dents in it. He had such a rage. I said, we're just going to have to leave it. I sent her out to talk to him once. I thought maybe he would be able to receive it. And I thought, Lord, what are we going to do with someone like this? We can't work with someone like this. This man is so proud. I'm proud, but this man is so proud. And I found out this week, the Lord put someone on my heart and I reached out and found out that this man was riding his tractor on the slope at his property. The tractor rolled and it crushed him and killed him. Suddenly, in a moment, the Lord only strives with a man once, twice, maybe three times. There's moments of hesitation in their life. Not everyone responds to the gospel. But the Lord reaches out, I believe, to many people and gives them an opportunity to soften and to turn to the Lord. We have that little window where our hearts are soft. But if we reject and rebel against that conviction, then soon the heart becomes hard. It can become like the concrete. And we can find ourselves fighting against God. And all of a sudden, suddenly, and in a moment, we look and they are no more. We need to seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near. Now we're sharing about looking for thank yous. It's a very dangerous thing if we're seeking honor from one another. And we're seeking honor from men. If we're doing things for man, to please man, then you will never grow spiritually. You'll be stuck. Because we are not to seek honor from one another. We're to seek the glory that belongs to God. He will not share his glory with us. It doesn't matter whatever gifting he gives us. If we wear it like a necklace around our neck, like pride, he can't bless us. But if we're humble, or we humble ourselves and we give all glory to him, then he can bless us. As we say, it's not us. It's the Lord. Unless the Lord had been on our side, we would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah ourselves. I want to read something in Philippians 2. 1. Therefore, if there is any comfort in Christ, if there is any comfort of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit among us, any affection toward one another, and extending of mercy toward one another, Paul says, fulfill my joy by having the same mind, being like-minded. We have to have this humble mindset one toward another. When you have a humble mindset one toward another, you care about how your brother's doing. You reach out to see how your sister's making up. This is what it means to be humble. We don't only look out for our own interests, but we also are concerned sincerely from the heart about the interests of others. So when we find out someone did a fantastic job and had success at something, or their business made a lot of money, we can rejoice with them. Because we are one heart and one spirit. We're brothers. We want our brothers to do the best. There was a time in my life, whenever I would hear that someone did better than me, or got a $1 an hour raise, or made a little bit more money on the house they were building than me, I would have envy, jealousy, anger, bitterness. All these things would stir up in my heart. Even murder would come in my heart, these kind of thoughts. This is from the demonic. Yet I sat in church, and I did the church thing. But my heart was wrong within me. It was wicked within me. But then when God changes my heart, and gives me a new heart, he takes my heart of stone, and he gives me, as he says in Ezekiel 36, a new heart and a new spirit. He takes away the hardness, and he gives the softness, and gives me a new spirit. Now all of a sudden, I can weep with those who weep, when they go through hard things, because I've gone through hard things. And I can rejoice and laugh with those who laugh. And I can be thankful, and be encouraged, and be happy for someone who makes money more than me, rather than envy. Because God has done something in my heart. It's not something you can do. But when it manifests, it's something that we can repent of when we see it. I'm thankful, I'm holy, I'm loving. It says these things in 2 Timothy 3, about the last days. That men will be lovers of themselves. You know, some people say they need to learn to love themselves. I say we love ourselves way too much, because the end days, it says men will be lovers of themselves. If you get hungry, you know exactly where to go and what to do to get the food you want. If you need some me time, you know exactly where you're going, to make sure that you get your me time. We know how to take care of ourselves, and we know how to love ourselves. We may be ashamed of ourselves. We may feel the condemnation of our sin. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the love in the flesh. The flesh loves itself. It doesn't want to die. It wants to preserve itself. And so he says we're to have the same mind which was in Christ. To have the mind of Christ. What was the mind of Christ? He thought of others. He came as a king, not to be king, but to serve. Can you imagine someone who is a king, coming and taking the form of a slave, and washing feet, and humbling oneself, and teaching, and laying one's life down, and giving, and helping, and going to another place because his father told him, because some woman at the well was there and needed to hear something of an exhortation, in a perfect kind of way, that would bring about a change of life. He was always ready to share a word in season to someone who needed to have that spring of well life spring up in them. He sang that song, spring up a well within my soul. Whenever Jesus was around, people would have a stirring within them because the Holy Spirit is life. And when he spoke, he had the words of life in him. And he came to serve in that way. Not seeking his own glory, but giving all glory to the father. And when they would come and say, are you the Christ? Or when the Christ comes, he'll tell us all things. Rarely did he reveal himself to the people as the Christ. It wasn't about him. He wasn't there to throw himself down from the temple and show himself to be a big shot. And when they came to, as a crowd, because he had fed them and they thought, man, this guy's gonna be this forever. Could this be the Christ? Let's make him king. He slipped away. Because the father says, this is not the way. This is not the way at this time. We have to be able to discern the way so that we become like Jesus. Let each of you, verse four, or let nothing be done, verse three, through selfish ambition or through pride, through conceit, but lowliness of mind, humbleness of heart. Let each of you esteem or consider others better than yourself. That's Philippians two, verse three. Let each of you look out, not only for your own interests, because we have no problem looking out for our own interests, but we need to also consider the interests of others. That is what it means to be a good mother and a good father, to think about the interests of your children, to be a good spiritual leader, a good elder, a good shepherd, a good teacher, to think about how you're going to move the people closer to Jesus. Verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it to be robbery to be equal with God, because he did say before Abraham was, I am. And he did tell the brothers to see the father. If you see me, it's the same as seeing the father. Can't change who he was. He was God in the flesh. Emmanuel, God with us, but he made himself. Circle that word. When you get home, he made himself of no reputation. That's something that you have to do. You have to choose to make yourself of no reputation. But the problem is that it comes so naturally for us in the world to want to become a reputation. It's in all of us. So people will recognize us. People will appreciate us. People will see the gift of God in us. People will understand the generosity that's in us. People will see the sacrifices that we've made for others. People will acknowledge that and will give us some accolades or even just a thank you. Jesus, he didn't come for that. He wasn't looking for that. He was only looking to please his father. And if we could have this mind that was in Jesus, then we could truly become home. To serve not expected. To serve not holding to reputation or to, you know, keeping that name. That we've spent our lifetime trying to build up a name for ourselves. So when you become a Christian, a true born again, then the false converts, they start to mock you and pick at you and put you down. And the Lord is allowing it to see what you will do. How will you respond? Will you take it? As the lamb before the shearer was silent, they took a razor, that lamb, and they just shaved him right down to the skin in the arm of it. It's like somebody taking a razor to your head and just shaving your hair right off. Even your wife. Your wife talks down to you and your husband comes with a razor and says, Holy Spirit spoke to me and said that I need to shave your head right down to the skin. Will you let your husband shave your head because you've been rebellious towards your husband? Maybe the Holy Spirit did speak to him. Maybe that's what's necessary to humble you. That's the rock falling on you because you refuse to humble yourself. But if we humble ourselves, then we don't need the razor on our head as women. And we don't need the rock to fall on us. And we don't need people at our workplace to put us in our place. Remember, God is in control of all things. He is the one that we serve. And he is the one who's working to get our attention and to shape our character. And you know what? Jesus had to pass every test in the same way we have to pass every test. Let this might be in you, which was in Jesus. It says he made himself of no reputation. Verse 7. He made himself of no reputation. Will you make yourself of no reputation? Will you take the lowest place on the job site? Will you take the lowest place in the family? Will you take the lowest place at the seat of the table when you go to a feast? Or will you sit right next to the head of the table? See, when you come into the kingdom of God, when the new guys come, you want to know where they sit? When they come to the table, Dan, where do they sit? They sit right next to me, right at the head of the table. That's where they come in. These are the babes. And then as they mature, they start to slip down the chairs. All of a sudden, you start to see it naturally happening. Nobody's talking about it. They're slipping down, slipping down, slipping down until you see them right at the end of the table. Furthest away from the head of the table. They start to make themselves of no reputation. When you go to a great feast, don't take the best seats like the Pharisees do. Take the seats at the lowest place. And then the Lord will say, hey, brother, don't go so far down there. Come up here, please. And then somebody who came and took their seat, some proud brother who took their seat right next to Jesus, said, listen, can you go to the last seat that's over there? Let's switch seats, please. Go to the last place. And this brother, come here next to me. Not that I'm anything, but I'm making a point. You can see it. It manifests itself. Nobody sees it, but next time you go and sit at the table, you'll know what I'm talking about now. Why? I've seen it for 20 years. I've watched it. Hundreds of men come and go. And the ones that don't learn about humility, they fall away. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ. And being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of zero reputation. I heard Brother George Warnock, and he shared with us one time, he shared it in a message in his book. He said, God is not in the business of bringing us down one notch or two to become humble. He's going to bring us to zero. Jesus made himself of zero reputation. In the form of God, took the lowest place, found in the likeness of man. Humbled himself to the point of bearing a criminal's death so that you and I could go forward. That's the love of God. And if we're willing to serve like that and take the lowest place so other people have an opportunity to know Jesus, to get locked on a little bit, to take the lowest jobs, I'll let the Lord let it burn until it becomes, the true joy starts to come. So Lord, it's burning right now. But Lord, I repent of it, Lord. Clearly I'm proud. Clearly I just think I deserve better. Clearly I'm being disrespected now. And I don't know why I care about being respected. As long as you respect me, have mercy on me. Change my character, I can't change myself. I want to keep moving. Don't let me fall because I'm proud. Don't grind me to powder because I'm doing my own thing. Lord, help me to fall on the rock now. Let my heart become humble. Truly that I could humble myself under the heavy hand of God and that you would lift me up. You know, when we read, I think it's Isaiah 40, he says, You lifted me up out of the miry clay, from a horrible pit. That's where you found me. I don't know where he found you. A lot of mud on me in a low, low place that I couldn't get out of. He placed me upon a rock. He said, you've got to fall on that rock. And he'll put a new song in your heart. A new song in your heart. He said, many shall see it, and shall fear, and shall trust the Lord. Lest is the man who makes the Lord his trust and does not respect the proud. Some of you can see that we're sometimes proud one toward another. We don't respect proud people. Or such as turn aside to lies. But to acknowledge the work of the Lord. The wonderful works that he has done. That he's in the process of doing in our lives. And what he will yet do. That's the faith and the hope that we have in him. And he's going to bring about a true change in our character. That we might be conformed into that same image as Jesus. What a heresy. It sounds like a heresy. But that is God's plan. That you would be conformed into that same image of Jesus. From glory to glory. Even as stars differ in their brightness. You shine ever brighter and ever sweeter. As we get closer to the sun. And being found in the appearance as a man. He humbled himself and became obedient. So you can circle that word at home. He made himself with no reputation. And he became obedient. He became obedient. He chose to be obedient. You have to choose to be obedient. It doesn't come naturally. This is how we pass the tests. God gives us. You know it's wonderful to spend time in the scriptures, isn't it? But you don't have too much honey. We'll make one vomit. So we spend time in the scriptures. And we get some sweet scriptures. Now we have to be tested. Whether we want to be obedient to what we know. There's no sense learning more scriptures. If we're not going to be tested in whether we'll obey what we know. And that's where people get stuck. They search scriptures. But they never pass the tests. When God sends it their way. They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed. Not to stumble but to be obedient. But we have to become obedient. By becoming obedient it means going against your will. You have to not do your will but his will. And that's what is written in the volume of the books about Jesus. He delighted to do his father's will. Will it be written in the book about you? He delighted or she delighted. To do my will. He was, she was obedient. Will you obey quickly? I want to become this in the Lord. I want to be used of the Lord. You want to pass the test? Because there's a thousand tests come up. And every one of them is very very painful. And very very hard. But there's very very much sufficient grace. To get a hundred percent on every test. Because Jesus didn't set us up to fail. He gives grace to the humble. And so if you come humbly to the throne of grace. Boldly in time of need. When you're getting tested. You will find help in Jesus name. You will find help. There will be grace. He became obedient to the point of death. Even the death of the cross. Therefore. God has highly exalted Jesus. And given him the name which is above every name. In heaven, on earth and under the earth. That at the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow. And every tongue confess. That Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father. Therefore my beloved brethren. My beloved brethren. Verse 12. As you have always obeyed. When Paul says you're watching. I'm watching. When I'm watching everybody is on their best behavior. But. Not as much. Now in my presence only. But how much more now. In my absence. Because when I'm not watching. Paul says. Because the Lord is always watching. To be obedient. Not just when people are watching. But when the door is closed. And nobody is watching. Much more in our absence. When God sees all things. He says. This is where. You need to work on your own salvation. When you have your me time. When you get in your. My space. When you just flip on. Filthy movie. When you just flip on some carnal music. And you just have a little. You know. Cheer me up. That's where the Lord sees you. Failing your tests. Oh you'll worship when people are watching. But when no one is watching. When I'm in my car. When no one is around. That's where the tests. Are galvanized. That's where you pass or fail. And if you fail there. Then you will never move on to the next grade. You will never move on. To the greater things. You will never get more light in yourself. Just more head knowledge. Which will puff you up. Rather than light. Which will make you like Jesus. May the Lord give you understanding. In what I say. I'm finished with this passage in James. James in chapter four. Verse five. Father do you think the scripture says in vain. That the spirit dwells in us. And yearns jealous. Did you know that God. His name means jealous. He's jealous for us. We are his bride. He's seeking a bride. Without spot or wrinkle. He's not seeking for a harlot. One that's unfaithful to him. Loving the world and everything in it. But a heart that is steadfast for the Lord. And the spirit that's in us. If you've been born again. The spirit yearns jealously for you. This is what the scripture is talking about. But he gives more grace. Therefore he says. God resists the problem. He's opposed to the problem. He will not bless the problem. He will humble the problem. He will cause them to find themselves stumbling. Better for them to stumble. Than remain proud. Because at least they could get life. And they could be right on themselves. And see that they're not right within themselves. Because they're sinning. Because when you're sitting there. Breathing in the CO2. You don't know that it's killing you. Until all of a sudden there's a manifestation. That sin is in the camp. So we can repent of it. And turn from it. And humble ourselves. But he gives grace to the humble. We don't need to stumble. It says if we stumble. We have an advocate. I don't know where that is. It's in 1 John chapter 2. I think it's in verse 1. If we stumble. Not when we stumble. We have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ. If we stumble. Because it says at the end of 2 Peter. It says in chapter 1. If you do these things. You will never stumble. Either these are truths or they're lies. But to you who believe. He's precious. But to you who are disobedient. They are the words. Builders rejected the word of God. They rejected the word of God. Manifested in the flesh. This word has become. The chief cornerstone. The foundation of the church. And the capstone of the church. He is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end. So for us. He gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God. That means obey quickly. What does it mean to submit to God? it. When you get tested, obey quickly. Resist the devil. Say Satan, get behind me. You're suffering now. The flesh is fighting you. The word, the Holy Spirit against the flesh. There's a war now. What are you going to do? You're going to hate your flesh. You're going to deny yourself things that the flesh wants. You're going to call on the name of the Lord. And he is going to answer you and show you great and awesome things that you don't yet know. The devil then will flee from you. Just like he fleed from Jesus in the wilderness when he stood up to him with the word of God. That knowledge that you got, it's for you to use to fight against the devil in your test. That's how you pass the test. You use the knowledge that you have to pass by obeying what you know. He's not going to trick you into testing you into something you don't know. He's always going to test you in what you already know so that you might overcome. Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Join near to God and he will join near to you. He says, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded, this unbeliever. Well, should I or should I? Well, you know, I justify myself. No, no, let's not be double-minded. Let's be steadfast in the word. Let's be immovable and shakable. Let's become pillars in the faith where people can lean on us, right? And we don't get easily shaken in mind and troubled, right? We become steadfast, immovable in the faith. Lament, mourn, and weep. This is the brokenness that I'm talking about. When God begins to work on us and we fall on that rock, we're obedient and we're broken. Lament, mourn, and weep. Let the tears come. Those tears are cleansing. They cleanse us from within. They purify our souls when we obey the truth through the word of God. He said, let your laughter be turned to mourning. There's a time to laugh, but there's also a time to mourn. When we get light on where we came from, we get light on how we failed him. And now we're going to stop failing him now because we've got light on ourselves. And we repent and we take some ground and move forward with the Lord. Next grade, moving forward. Let your joy turn to gloom. There's a time for that. This is humbling yourself rather than getting humble. If you're proud and you get humble, cool. You want to punch somebody right in the face. But if you humble yourself, you'll become humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he's going to lift you up. He'll lift you up. It doesn't mean you're going to become a boss. He's going to lift you up in his sight. He's going to start to speak to you. He's going to start to elevate you in the spirit. You'll start to become useful to him. You'll go from servant to friend. He'll lift you up from the status of servant to friend. Servant doesn't have a clue what the master's doing. Sometimes you go to work and you say, move that pile from here to there. He has absolutely no clue why. You just do it. Once you become a friend, you see we're moving that pile from here to there because we're going to build a house over here. Oh, there's going to be a house built. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for sharing that. From servant to friend. Friend, he begins to know what the master's doing. He's a friend of the master. He starts to share the secrets with you. This is what's happening. While you're a servant, he says, move the rocks from here to here. Why? Don't ask why. Just do it. You'll be obedient. Lord, grateful for your word. Thank you for the exhortation, the comfort. Let's pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit would speak to us and our hearts individually, Lord. Lord, that I could be humble. That I could humble myself so that I don't get humble. Forgive us of our sins. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil, Lord. Thank you for it. All your wonderful mercies and your compassions and the blessing of the Lord, our God, Jesus.